Thailand

Journalists faced significant restrictions, particularly online, despite democratic elections and a
change in government. Outgoing Prime Minister
Abhisit Vejjajiva cracked down on partisan media, shutting radio stations and
detaining Somyot Preuksakasemsuk, editor
of a newsmagazine aligned with the anti-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship. New premier Yingluck
Shinawatra wielded the country's strict lèse majesté laws by censoring websites and
Facebook pages, and harassing Internet users who posted online material critical of the monarchy. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, editor of the news website Prachatai, faced a possible 50 years in prison under
the draconian 2007 Computer Crimes Act for
anonymous anti-royal remarks that were posted to one of her site's comment sections. The case was pending in late year. A
reporter was killed in September while covering
bombings in the country's insurgency-plagued southern region, a fatality that continued the country's recent spate of media
deaths. The government opened a new inquiry into the
fatal shooting of Reuters cameraman Hiro
Muramoto during 2010 protests in Bangkok,
but authorities left unresolved the case of a second international journalist killed in the 2010 unrest, Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi.

A clampdown on partisan media and anti-royal commentary saw the jailing of Somyot. With his
imprisonment, Thailand appeared on CPJ's annual
prison census for the first time.

Imprisoned in Thailand on CPJ's annual census:

At least nine journalists have been killed in direct relation to their work in Thailand since 1992.
Fatalities have increased in recent years along
with rising political tensions, CPJ research shows. In 2011, newspaper
reporter Phamon Phonphanit died from severe burns suffered while covering bomb blasts in
Sungai Kolok.

Work-related fatalities in recent years:

The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology censored nearly 75,000 Web pages between the
enactment of the 2007
Computer Crimes Act and the end of 2010, according to Thailand's independent iLaw
project. More than 75 percent of the blocked pages
were said to contain anti-royal content.

Growing online censorship, as recorded by iLaw:

Year

2007
2008
2009
2010

Court Orders

1
13
64
39

Censored Web pages

2
2,071
28,705
43,908

The number of lèse majesté complaints filed to lower courts has spiked since a 2006 military
coup, according to Thai court records.
Thailand's lèse majesté laws prohibit criticism of the royal family and set prison penalties up to 15 years, making them
among the most severe in the world.

Lèse majesté cases filed 2006-10:

As authorities ramped up website censorship, bloggers and alternative news providers migrated
to platforms such as Facebook. With more than 12
million users, Thailand ranked 16th globally in total Facebook usage, according to Socialbakers data.